The Birth part 3
Feb. 24th, 2022 08:31 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
whitewriterAnd just like that, yesterday we hit exactly 2 weeks to the day.
'Cause I had poor uterine tone and lost about 1L of blood whilst they were trying to sort out my 2nd degree tear, put a new cannula in (the shower had ruined the old one... and somewhere in all the "put ur hands behind your knees and bear down" it just wasn't in anymore) --- this time right in the cubital fossa.
I scored 40U oxytocin, transexamic acid (no joke that stuff is intense) and, misoprostal up the rectm. When I heard misoprostal I was like "really?! That stuff ..." (I was thinking of the fevers and chills I've seen other women get when they are on miso) and they said "well we've measured 1L of loss so far so we think you should have it" and I was resigned. Somewhere along the way I asked if they had put in an IDC... because, you know. Firstline treatment for bleeds... plus. They were about to.
The 2nd was sutured with local (and some gas). Apparently she could "see some fibers of the anus" (so it was close)but not enough to need repair (lucky me). I had retained anal control and tone.
After the bleeding had stopped-- and with all the kefuffle about that, no one was free to try getting her on the breast. I tried a little, but she wasn't keen. almost 1.5 hrs later the midwife hand expressed 3ml of colostrum from me (and that's a lot) in about 1 min and finger fed the little kiddo. Her BGLs were stable. Mine were up. I scored an 8.0. But no more food restrictions and no more insulin and so I had the toastie I was looking forward to, and the juice. and the fruit cup. And no one cared.
I was offered a shower but after a 1L loss I replied to the midwife "your really brave offering me a shower".... and I had a bed bath (which was refreshing enough to let me sleep) and had a mountain of bloody sheets -- and my fluffy slippers which were under the bed (cheap kmart ones) were covered in blood and I just said to throw then out. For $12 they had served their purpose.
A good nap later I woke up to Pete hanging out with the kid in the corner on a couch trying not to sleep. He doesn't do well sleeping at the wrong part of the day-- and in the end he went home to do a few things and I was left waiting for a ward bed.
The next 2 days and nights were a blur. I was admitted to bed 5 initially, which is right opposite the door that opens to the ward. It was the windowless bed in a double room. The midwife talked to the incharge (I didn't ask) and swapped me to bed 6 which was near the window and away from the door in front of the door.
Thanks lady.
My baby had a bunch of mucousy vomits, meaning I expressed and finger fed her a few times. I was informed I should "let the midwives do that incase she choked" but they seemed rather busy, and in the end ... I got it done and remembered the volumes. I was more worried about all the vomits. I pressed the buzzer a few times. They looked a little like mild blood stain streaked yellowy mucous. Not the milky white ones I was used to seeing at SSH as a student. They weren't concerned and at approx 17:00 after the last big vomit, she looked hungry (finally) and attached just fine (from my vague memory) and we went onto the breast from then on.
In the afternoon --my neighbor arrived, another lady who gave birth pretty much around the time I did ( but her child went dusky and had RDS about an hour? or so after the birth and ended up in special care. I overheard that the baby was slightly premi ? approx 36+something almost 37, it was her first and that she was an international student who had overstayed her visa -- likely due to the govt issues with not letting people out of the country.
Her side of the bed was quiet as there was no baby. My side, was ... I thought really reasonable. Sometime around 22:00 when the kid had a poop and I was cleaning her up, - she was crying - and a voice came from the other side of the curtain "do you need help" and I called back "no it's just a dirty nappy".
It was her first child too and I thought "just wait til ur baby comes and is with you.. " then the noise will make sense.
I spent a lot of time feeding the kid and sorta trying to anticipate her tears and for the most part I thought it was pretty peaceful. Poor lady in bed 5 had trouble sleeping. Too bad she didn't have ear plugs. I knew she was going to the nursery at 1am so at around then I had some relief from needing to keep quiet.
I had headphones and a lot of data on my phone that I had inadvertently banked up over the last 6 months and I spent the night listening to rain forest sounds or meditation whilst also trying to not miss my little one's cries.
I was pretty keen to go home to my own bed and space.
However despite living in the catchment for midwifery at home (M@H), the service was full. Meaning no midwife would visit me, and she'd not get her day 4 and day 7 weights -- and she still needed the newborn screen test done which shouldn't be done much earlier than 48 hours post birth. And jaundice testing with a TCB.
These all were really important to me, and no I couldn't go home, and then come back to get them done at the hospital either. So I stayed.
On the second night, I realised something was wrong with my bladder. I'd not feel any urge to pee. But after 4 hours and a lot of water I found that strange and I'd toddle to the toilet - and sit there and the urine would just fall out, and it seemed like heaps. A lot considering I couldn't feel it. I asked for a physio review at 1am and they came to see me by 9am. After some measuring of the pee (600mls and I couldn't feel it) and a bladder scan (luckily fairly empty) it turned out I had lost was bladder sensation (see, all those kegels I didn't do came to bite me on the arse)
I had been so keen to run out of there on night 1 -- that if I hadn't been promptly told that if I chose to leave (I was discharged by medical but midwifery was flexible) my daughter would not be on the midwifery at home program as the only way to get on it was at discharge. -- that no one would have picked up my bladder issue and I wouldn't have a plan or follow up for that either.
Plus it was reassuring to be able to successfully pass a poop at the hospital. I had plenty of gas (and poor control)- which probably wasn't made better by the movicol and coloxyl I asked for. That's sorta gotten better since I've been working a tonne on these kegal things.
The postnatal checks they did were pretty minimalistic compared to the long ones I learnt at SSH. Either they just thought "she's RN/RM so she'd know if there's an issue" but I also didn't hear anyone doing a good postnatal check on bed 5 either. There were language barriers over there but they seemed like ones related to accent or colloquialisms or racism because from what I heard she could speak just fine.
On the Friday, everything was sorted for M@H and all we needed was the paediatrician to check her over. A young boy no more than 24 (if that) came around. We had no questions, except there was these red marks on her neck (which I assumed was newborn rash but. you know, ask while your there) and he called it a "stork mark". So cute. But not to worry about.
After he came we loaded her in the stroller that was for a much larger baby - the straps at their tightest were not tight at all and the stroller did not lay flat-- going down to approx 20 degree angle at best. The main point was we needed some device to bring her down stairs - hand carrying a baby in the hospital is frowned upon and your not technically meant to take the cot down. So we gingerly wheeled her out of the room, into the lift, down level 5 to level 3, and waited in the atrium for Dad (Pete) to bring the car around. I showed her off to the ICU receptionist and texted Ellen who was luckily working that day, and managed to see us off. She was the only staff member I saw whilst waiting in the atrium (it was approx 5pm so the afternoon shifters on 8 hrs would have already changed over) We almost missed her - there was an arrest which had held her up. But she made it just as we were loading the car.
After 3 mornings dedicated to getting her centerlink and medicare stuff sorted (for some reason, Dad's can't do it -- but I did notice I could have started the process whilst I was pregnant, which would have been less stressful than doing it after she came) -- I finally finished on Tuesday morning. Despite having so called "Free time" now - I still managed to run out of time yesterday for anything beyond baseline activities. Go figure.
'Cause I had poor uterine tone and lost about 1L of blood whilst they were trying to sort out my 2nd degree tear, put a new cannula in (the shower had ruined the old one... and somewhere in all the "put ur hands behind your knees and bear down" it just wasn't in anymore) --- this time right in the cubital fossa.
I scored 40U oxytocin, transexamic acid (no joke that stuff is intense) and, misoprostal up the rectm. When I heard misoprostal I was like "really?! That stuff ..." (I was thinking of the fevers and chills I've seen other women get when they are on miso) and they said "well we've measured 1L of loss so far so we think you should have it" and I was resigned. Somewhere along the way I asked if they had put in an IDC... because, you know. Firstline treatment for bleeds... plus. They were about to.
The 2nd was sutured with local (and some gas). Apparently she could "see some fibers of the anus" (so it was close)but not enough to need repair (lucky me). I had retained anal control and tone.
After the bleeding had stopped-- and with all the kefuffle about that, no one was free to try getting her on the breast. I tried a little, but she wasn't keen. almost 1.5 hrs later the midwife hand expressed 3ml of colostrum from me (and that's a lot) in about 1 min and finger fed the little kiddo. Her BGLs were stable. Mine were up. I scored an 8.0. But no more food restrictions and no more insulin and so I had the toastie I was looking forward to, and the juice. and the fruit cup. And no one cared.
I was offered a shower but after a 1L loss I replied to the midwife "your really brave offering me a shower".... and I had a bed bath (which was refreshing enough to let me sleep) and had a mountain of bloody sheets -- and my fluffy slippers which were under the bed (cheap kmart ones) were covered in blood and I just said to throw then out. For $12 they had served their purpose.
A good nap later I woke up to Pete hanging out with the kid in the corner on a couch trying not to sleep. He doesn't do well sleeping at the wrong part of the day-- and in the end he went home to do a few things and I was left waiting for a ward bed.
The next 2 days and nights were a blur. I was admitted to bed 5 initially, which is right opposite the door that opens to the ward. It was the windowless bed in a double room. The midwife talked to the incharge (I didn't ask) and swapped me to bed 6 which was near the window and away from the door in front of the door.
Thanks lady.
My baby had a bunch of mucousy vomits, meaning I expressed and finger fed her a few times. I was informed I should "let the midwives do that incase she choked" but they seemed rather busy, and in the end ... I got it done and remembered the volumes. I was more worried about all the vomits. I pressed the buzzer a few times. They looked a little like mild blood stain streaked yellowy mucous. Not the milky white ones I was used to seeing at SSH as a student. They weren't concerned and at approx 17:00 after the last big vomit, she looked hungry (finally) and attached just fine (from my vague memory) and we went onto the breast from then on.
In the afternoon --my neighbor arrived, another lady who gave birth pretty much around the time I did ( but her child went dusky and had RDS about an hour? or so after the birth and ended up in special care. I overheard that the baby was slightly premi ? approx 36+something almost 37, it was her first and that she was an international student who had overstayed her visa -- likely due to the govt issues with not letting people out of the country.
Her side of the bed was quiet as there was no baby. My side, was ... I thought really reasonable. Sometime around 22:00 when the kid had a poop and I was cleaning her up, - she was crying - and a voice came from the other side of the curtain "do you need help" and I called back "no it's just a dirty nappy".
It was her first child too and I thought "just wait til ur baby comes and is with you.. " then the noise will make sense.
I spent a lot of time feeding the kid and sorta trying to anticipate her tears and for the most part I thought it was pretty peaceful. Poor lady in bed 5 had trouble sleeping. Too bad she didn't have ear plugs. I knew she was going to the nursery at 1am so at around then I had some relief from needing to keep quiet.
I had headphones and a lot of data on my phone that I had inadvertently banked up over the last 6 months and I spent the night listening to rain forest sounds or meditation whilst also trying to not miss my little one's cries.
I was pretty keen to go home to my own bed and space.
However despite living in the catchment for midwifery at home (M@H), the service was full. Meaning no midwife would visit me, and she'd not get her day 4 and day 7 weights -- and she still needed the newborn screen test done which shouldn't be done much earlier than 48 hours post birth. And jaundice testing with a TCB.
These all were really important to me, and no I couldn't go home, and then come back to get them done at the hospital either. So I stayed.
On the second night, I realised something was wrong with my bladder. I'd not feel any urge to pee. But after 4 hours and a lot of water I found that strange and I'd toddle to the toilet - and sit there and the urine would just fall out, and it seemed like heaps. A lot considering I couldn't feel it. I asked for a physio review at 1am and they came to see me by 9am. After some measuring of the pee (600mls and I couldn't feel it) and a bladder scan (luckily fairly empty) it turned out I had lost was bladder sensation (see, all those kegels I didn't do came to bite me on the arse)
I had been so keen to run out of there on night 1 -- that if I hadn't been promptly told that if I chose to leave (I was discharged by medical but midwifery was flexible) my daughter would not be on the midwifery at home program as the only way to get on it was at discharge. -- that no one would have picked up my bladder issue and I wouldn't have a plan or follow up for that either.
Plus it was reassuring to be able to successfully pass a poop at the hospital. I had plenty of gas (and poor control)- which probably wasn't made better by the movicol and coloxyl I asked for. That's sorta gotten better since I've been working a tonne on these kegal things.
The postnatal checks they did were pretty minimalistic compared to the long ones I learnt at SSH. Either they just thought "she's RN/RM so she'd know if there's an issue" but I also didn't hear anyone doing a good postnatal check on bed 5 either. There were language barriers over there but they seemed like ones related to accent or colloquialisms or racism because from what I heard she could speak just fine.
On the Friday, everything was sorted for M@H and all we needed was the paediatrician to check her over. A young boy no more than 24 (if that) came around. We had no questions, except there was these red marks on her neck (which I assumed was newborn rash but. you know, ask while your there) and he called it a "stork mark". So cute. But not to worry about.
After he came we loaded her in the stroller that was for a much larger baby - the straps at their tightest were not tight at all and the stroller did not lay flat-- going down to approx 20 degree angle at best. The main point was we needed some device to bring her down stairs - hand carrying a baby in the hospital is frowned upon and your not technically meant to take the cot down. So we gingerly wheeled her out of the room, into the lift, down level 5 to level 3, and waited in the atrium for Dad (Pete) to bring the car around. I showed her off to the ICU receptionist and texted Ellen who was luckily working that day, and managed to see us off. She was the only staff member I saw whilst waiting in the atrium (it was approx 5pm so the afternoon shifters on 8 hrs would have already changed over) We almost missed her - there was an arrest which had held her up. But she made it just as we were loading the car.
After 3 mornings dedicated to getting her centerlink and medicare stuff sorted (for some reason, Dad's can't do it -- but I did notice I could have started the process whilst I was pregnant, which would have been less stressful than doing it after she came) -- I finally finished on Tuesday morning. Despite having so called "Free time" now - I still managed to run out of time yesterday for anything beyond baseline activities. Go figure.
